Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Sunday, May 22. 2011

Disability cases

I regularly get calls for consultations from people seeking disability for emotional complaints. If I fill out the lengthy state form, it's pretty much guaranteed that they will get some sorts of government checks forever.


I tell them to call somebody else. I won't do it. In the charity clinic at which I volunteer my time we have a blind fellow, a guy with no legs, and a paranoid schizophrenic lady working. They all get the admin work done. At my supermarket, my bags are packed by a gal with Down's. She is a sweetie.


The calls I get about this are, like, I have bad Bipolar or bad OCD, or bad drug addiction, or chronic depression with fibromyalgia. Being a Psychiatrist, I fortunately do not get calls from the people who say they can't work because their back hurts. Whose doesn't?


Giving up on a productive life means giving up on life and giving up on dignity. A colleague of mine will not work with anybody on any form of disability. His view is "If they have given up hope for themselves, why should I bother?" I tell him it's all about getting the money, not about hope. Scamming the system, or reverting to dependency.


This guy gets SSI,




 

Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Our Essays, Psychology, and Dr. Bliss at 14:37 | Comments (13) | Trackbacks (0)

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"This guy gets SSI..."

But maybe not too much longer if Tom Coburn can light a fire under the backsides of the SSI administrators.
#1 Agent Cooper on 2011-05-22 14:51 (Reply)
Okay, that was just sick. I could only get through the first minute. Yeah, the law needs to be tightened.
#2 molloaggie on 2011-05-22 15:08 (Reply)
Back in high school, I witnessed a guy who looked a bit downs, who was possibly mainstreamed by some well-meaning government decision, become a target and get picked at every single day.

The nickname of “Nasty Edwin” stuck, and he took crap from bullies (and many others) everywhere he went. This harmless kid was forced into trying to make his way in a hostile situation. It didn’t work, he wound up having a breakdown, and we never saw him again.

There probably was an answer for this poor guy, but the then-knowledge of social dynamics and psychology in general was so primitive, that that “answer” became a disaster.

Are there cost effective techniques to get “special” people to become productive citizens? I sure don’t know. But it seems like even today, nobody else does either. I sure don’t want to think Hitler was right.

And yes, we also have all the freeloaders who are trying to take advantage of a good thing.
#3 Commander Clopfelter on 2011-05-22 15:18 (Reply)
There is a big difference between someone with a birth defect that holds him back and someone who chooses what most would consider a perverse lifestyle.
#3.1 class factotum (Link) on 2011-05-23 09:04 (Reply)
This got me thinking. I’d be a full blown libertarian, if Big Dog Heroes were a common part of the everyday human condition. Supermen types who fought for truth, justice, and the American way, and stood up for outmatched harmless little guys just trying to do the right thing.

I did see one girl stand up for “Nasty Edwin”, once, but she had no real power. Nobody listens to Birkenstock-wearing bleeding-heart hippy chicks. What that situation required was for an obviously powerful future mover and shaker to step in and do the right thing. A star quarterback/class president/make the ladies swoon/superman type. But none existed in that 3000 student school at the time, student or teacher.

Such supermen might also help turn “big fat babies” into real men. Or at least publicly productive private perverts who bothered no taxpayer.

There may be Big Dog Heroes out there, but from what I’ve seen, far too few to aid in the creation of a truly free society. So we need laws. And politicians. And psychologists.
#3.1.1 Commander Clopfelter on 2011-05-23 13:50 (Reply)
A big chunk of Social Security goes to various and sundry grifters, fakes, ne'er-do-wells and lazy phata**es like this clown. They collect their whole life and never pay in. Somebody needs to audit that. The DSM comes up with stupid new disorders constantly and a new class of victims emerges.
#4 bill on 2011-05-22 16:43 (Reply)
Here in town we have a disability workshop where people with disabilities of all sorts are taught life skills and work skills. They have a placement outreach and employers are willing to hire because the workshop follows up and works with their trainees. It is a very successful program. Blick
#5 JP Blickenstaff on 2011-05-22 17:51 (Reply)
The people I see applying for SSDI? I don't you guys would hire many of them, frankly.

And you really don't want them out there in your neighborhoods without their expensive medicines, frankly.

I'm a hard guy, and I am aware of what people are giving up when they go on disability. But don't fall out the other side of that boat. And please, don't make political decisions on the basis of what you "feel" or "sense," or pretty obviously "want" to be true about the disabled. Get the facts. Don't assume. Don't get into the "Yeah, those blind people could see if they really wanted to" mentality.

Just for example, if that kid's got Downs, he's received expensive support services to get ready for that job, into that job, and is maybe still receiving them.
#6 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2011-05-22 17:52 (Reply)
AVI. do you have a quick opinion on the adult baby receiving government money?
#6.1 Gringo on 2011-05-23 10:17 (Reply)
Yeah. Ridiculous. If there's some piece I'm missing, I could back down from that, but I haven't seen anything that suggests this is anything other than supporting pathology.
#6.1.1 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2011-05-23 20:12 (Reply)
An friend in the 70s was a county disability worker; a client supplied her with a hand-written penciled notebook paper page (including doctor's letterhead) saying "Jimmy Brown is totally disable to work."

"You'll have to do better than that," she said.
#7 rhhardin (Link) on 2011-05-22 18:34 (Reply)
Some people can function with a serious disability, others can't.
#8 Alan Kellogg (Link) on 2011-05-22 19:01 (Reply)
That guy's not disabled. For one thing, he's a helluva better woodworker than I am.
#9 beenel on 2011-05-23 10:37 (Reply)

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